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Rampage - 10/22/2021


Dolfan in NYC

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Smart of Pac and Andrade cutting out the opening stuff not just because this is match two between them and they've got the hate going but it was also deep into a 4-5 hour tv taping. Great match and hot angle afterwards. Florida is to Cody what Canada was to Bret, but this time the minority is wrong dammit. 

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1 hour ago, Jiji said:

Smart of Pac and Andrade cutting out the opening stuff not just because this is match two between them and they've got the hate going but it was also deep into a 4-5 hour tv taping. Great match and hot angle afterwards. Florida is to Cody what Canada was to Bret, but this time the minority is wrong dammit. 

Andrade is a badass. I hope this match gets him more respect.

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2 hours ago, Gordberg said:

It makes perfect sense if part of the plan in booking the tournament is to turn Mox to set him up as a challenger for the new anxious millennial champ down the road, which I think is likely.

Mox heeling out on OC and then on American Dragon would probably be enough to get him booed.

It's exhausting explaining Cody to people. I hereby assign you as the Mox Whisperer.  

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Really thought Hobbs could have won that one, I thought OC being all bandaged up was leading to that.

How good is Britt at ALWAYS finding the camera for little winks and shit?

Main event was awesome as expected from this two and I loved the ending cradle/small package as it really looked impossible to escape, always appreciate that.

Fun show as always, I love how non stop Rampage feels.

 

Edited by eikerir
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3 good matches this week. PAC vs Andrade got very spotty but they really killed each other. With Black showing respect to Martin last week and the way the Cody angle was going, I was expecting them to do a double turn tomorrow, but that doesn't look likely now

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1 hour ago, eikerir said:

Really thought Hobbs could have won that one, I thought OC being all bandaged up was leading to that.

How good is Britt at ALWAYS finding the camera for little winks and shit?

Main event was awesome as expected from this two and I loved the ending cradle/small package as it really looked impossible to escape, always appreciate that.

Fun show as always, I love how non stop Rampage feels.

 

One of the best I've seen. It's one of Dr. Britt Baker's biggest traits. The standout was in her Lights Out match with Thunder Rosa on Dynamite, 17th March this year I gave ***** to.

Agree with the rest of your post as well.

Edited by The Natural
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Cassidy vs Hobbs: Liked this. Again, Cassidy doesn't seem like a big mystery at this point. He does all the mind games at the beginning so that he can have an opportunity like this against an opponent he can't match up against where he can immediately try to throw the Orange Punch. It worked in 2020. It doesn't work here as Hobbs is ready for it and they tease a quick spinebuster win for Hobbs. After that it's all focus on the back and Hobbs using his power to cut off everything that Cassidy tries. There's no chance for him to get in Hobbs' head as he's just fighting for his lives and when he does come back, it's desperate, and when he does get hope spots, they're roll ups. But Hobbs can't put him away and he loses his cool. Completely different but still totally reasonable and theoretically in character (if the character is broader than the lowest possibility for what it is) for Cassidy.

Anna Jay vs Baker: Nice sprint here. It seems silly that Conti didn't come out with Jay. Yes, she had to make the save later, but still. Early story with Baker underestimating Jay worked and the little kick from the apron looked especially good. Transition was off a hairpull in the corner which was perfectly effective to me. We lost a chunk with the commercial which added to the sprint feel and probably lost us some of the heat. Britt does need to win basically clean now and again (with Anna having dealt with the distraction) and Anna doesn't really need protection right now, but it still felt like a shame in her biggest match. The Queenslayer never felt like it was really locked in which protected it even if it was on for a while.

Pac vs Andrade: Speaking of sprints. Thankfully, there were real momentum shifts and transitions which made it feel like it had a bit more narrative and substance. First thirty seconds or so were a perfect way to start a rematch with these guys. Andrade doing an Eddie tribute feels a bit weird. I figure he's like Angel in that Hector Garza would have been more of an inspiration than Eddie, just from where he came up and where he was working. Chair positioning was unfortunate (or fortunate) on the rana off the apron. One positive thing I can say about Pac is that when they tease any sort of move with him, you believe that it could happen. Usually when they tease a suplex to the floor or something crazy on the apron, you assume it's going to get cut off or reversed, but that really isn't the case with Pac. Biggest issue I had with the stretch is that I would have been happier if they did the strike exchange BEFORE the super brainbuster. I wasn't really buying that they were recovered enough afterwards for it. Otherwise it worked. Post match was a bit wonky because Black working with Andrade seemed off character, but otherwise it worked. Think about it. The fans just saw a great match. They were heavily invested in Pac in the moment. They were pissed with Andrade for messing up that moment. They didn't want to see Black, who has an off putting presence, take out Pac. Arn came out and pulled the trigger and Cody was the bullet. That was absolutely a Dusty trick, leeching off everyone's heat (Andrade, Black, Pac, and even Arn's meme-able moment) to make the save and be over as a big babyface. Good on him for using the tools at his disposal and manipulating people's emotions. That's what wrestling is all about.

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8 hours ago, Gordberg said:

It makes perfect sense if part of the plan in booking the tournament is to turn Mox to set him up as a challenger for the new anxious millennial champ down the road, which I think is likely.

Yeah, I was going to say something similar. I would have liked to see Hobbs pull out the win here too, but Cassidy winning sets Mox up to face nothing but babyfaces in the tournament and I suspect that's deliberate.

Changing the subject, it sounded like the crowd had absolutely no reaction to Anna Jay putting her finishing hold on Britt Baker, which was disappointing.

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Malakai working with Andrade makes sense, because Andrade used to be managed by Zelina Vega, and Malakai is married to her. If only she hadn't re-signed with WWE, this would have been her angle right now.

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I'm not sure how the women's tournament is going to go, but if they wanted Jade to win, they've set it up fairly well. Bye in the first round, Rosa in the second, Statlander in the third. She could be carried/protected pretty well in that scenario. I still think it's not the way to go, especially if Britt is going to be champ for a while (and she should be), but we'll see. They're also doing a good job of setting up mini stories in the tournament, like Mox vs Cassidy (post the Yuta match) or Shida vs Deeb.

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7 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'm not sure how the women's tournament is going to go, but if they wanted Jade to win, they've set it up fairly well. Bye in the first round, Rosa in the second, Statlander in the third. She could be carried/protected pretty well in that scenario. I still think it's not the way to go, especially if Britt is going to be champ for a while (and she should be), but we'll see. 

You skipped a round - she faces the winner of Bunny vs Red Velvet before she gets to Rosa. But Red Velvet has shown she can have a good match with Jade before, so that should be okay.

I think we'll see Rosa hand Jade her first loss in this tournament and go on to win the title, but as you say, we'll see.

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All three matches were really strong this week. I continue to be impressed with how PAC and Andrade can do fast-paced high spot matches that still feel hurty and hateful. The post-match was electric, too, even if it seemed to rely a lot on fans having knowledge of Malakai and Andrade’s IRL friendship to make sense of it in the moment.

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I get the Vega connection, though that wasn't my first thought. It's more a case that Andrade, who's paying MJF to get FTR to wear goofy hoods, and had an on/off partnership with Chavo, sort of a flimsy, trashy sort of dude, doesn't seem like the sort of guy that the dark and mysterious Malakai Black would hang out with.

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The Malakai/Andrade connection is a nice little nod to their real-life friendship. Boy howdy that match ruled. It's crazy to think that WWE looked at a dude as gifted as Pac and thought, "Mighty Mouse." Even crazier after he had that great open-challenge match with Cena where they teased an upset. OH WELL. 

Speaking of Black, Anna Jay should seek his advice regarding putting some oomph behind those strikes. She's made huge strides in a short time but still seems to hesitate. 

I'm telling ya, OC beats Mox in a similar surprise way and we get a Danielson/Cassidy final. 

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One thing I loved right off the bat was AEW realizing hey, Hobbs and OC have faced each other before, and even if we didn't have any long term booking in mind when we did that match, it exists, so why not use it to add something extra to this one.

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3 minutes ago, just drew said:

Rampage closing the show with 3 squandered nXt champions in the ring wasn't lost on me. HHH was throwing things somewhere during that segment.

Trips was pointing a different finger to his usual NXT one ?.

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11 hours ago, SirFozzie said:

Again, probably in the minority but I wasn't exactly chuffed by the way that Tay saved her friend. Didn't really have a sense of urgency or "you're hurting my friend!" in the moment. But that just may be me.

I did notice that as well. Watching it again this morning, Conti runs out, then seems to hesitate before entering the ring. She then takes her time before starting to attack Britt. Not sure if Conti was confused about where to position herself in the ring (she may also have been told not to, say, jump on Britt given that Anna is still recovering from a shoulder injury), but she looked a tad lost in that segment.

The 12-woman tournament to crown a TBS champ seems ... different. You could have easily gone 16 and added Sakura, Abadon, Mizunami and Diamante to the pairings.

I was OK with Hobbs-Cassidy, but I'm with the peanut gallery that it would have been cool to see Hobbs go over in an upset.

 

 

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12 hours ago, DEAN said:

Man, that PAC/Andrade is fucking great.  The Britt Baker/Anna J was way better than I thought it would be- though Anna J's kicks suck.  Why didn't Powerhouse Hobbs go over?  That made no sense.

I assume PAC's been a bit difficult to book with travel, but they need to get him back on the upward trajectory proper for a talent this grand.  Andrade too.  As expected, that was fucking great.  The Hobbs-OC finish was definitely illogical and weak, but they did just allude to a future OC-Mox match from that Mox-Wheeler squash, also this from @tbarrie...

3 hours ago, tbarrie said:

Yeah, I was going to say something similar. I would have liked to see Hobbs pull out the win here too, but Cassidy winning sets Mox up to face nothing but babyfaces in the tournament and I suspect that's deliberate.

Changing the subject, it sounded like the crowd had absolutely no reaction to Anna Jay putting her finishing hold on Britt Baker, which was disappointing.

There was no reaction because Anna Jay looked like she was having a wrestling school demonstration in there.  I really like Anna, and I'm plainly aware how little experience she brings, but seems like ppl are buying Jericho's kayfabe 'she's never looked better' comment.  I can't remember the last time she's looked so green.  Her attempts at chain wrestling, her atrocious sells on those late match strikes against the ropes, her execution of the Queen Slayer - nothing looked good.  She looked completely lost.  Again, love her and see the huge upside, but that bout looked incredibly weak.  They need to have Anna working some longer single bouts before putting her on TV for any sort of big match again.  I hope they see that they needed to do that before this match.  Kudos to Baker for keeping that shit sorta together.    

And very much agree with the prevoious posters on Tay Conti's late arrival, and again (fucking always) with the unnatural theme music before the save.  Give me the element of surprise on these things.  What is the logic of orchestrating the music just in time.  I know, I know it's wrestling and we shouldn't expect better.  It's also so ridiculous when a heel has two outside cronies and the face, who has a well established friend and partner, like in this case with Tay, isn't at ringside.  Happens far too often in this promotion.    

Edited by HarryArchieGus
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